By Peter Theuri
From the outset, in a subtle disclaimer, grinning so you would not tell how much she means it, Jennifer concedes she no longer confidently identifies as a farmer. When we ask why, she puffs out her cheeks and then exhales steadily, her eyes momentarily distant as she recollects the rollercoaster happenings of the past several years.
One moment, she had a sprawling pig farm, with 3,000 animals. The next moment, she had none.
“I was there, a fully invested farmer, heart and mind all in. Now, I am just a person who owns a farm,” she chuckles.
Jennifer Koome, an entrepreneur who also owns the Thika based Amboseli Institute of Hospitality & Technology, got into pig rearing because she was in pursuit of a hobby that would put to profitable use her 25 acres of land in Isiolo. A friend had simply asked ‘Why not keep pigs?’ and the wheels had been set firmly in motion.
And soon, business was flourishing. Daiichi Farm, the haven in the heart of Isiolo, was soon supplying between 70 and 100 pigs to Farmer’s Choice every day.
Jennifer and her husband hired about 70 workers on the farm. The future was looking even brighter because amid a protracted competition for raw materials for feed, such as maize, between animals and humans, Kenya was inching closer towards adoption of biotechnology.
Fortunately, she was in an advantaged position to know and interrogate whatever changes were imminent in agriculture, and the impact these would have on farmers.
She was in lobby groups, battling hard along like-minded farmer representatives to help in realization of better policies around agriculture, in an environment wrought with difficulties. For many reasons, farmer interests often failed to prevail.
“I learnt that when farmers’ voices begin to be heard, many lobbyists, in for other reasons altogether, lose.”
Jennifer also faced the challenge of improving her pig breeds, with industry blockades from aspiring monopolies setting her back. With her relentlessness and determination, however, she had a great level of success, until Covid-19 docked.
“It came when the business was at its peak. Suddenly, hotels and institutions were shutting down, so Farmer’s Choice did not have anyone to supply,” she says.
Unwilling to abandon ship, Jennifer went into processing, employing about 15 other workers to help in the new business. She then started to do home deliveries, which was unlike anything that had been attempted before.
When the pandemic’s sting subsided and the economy started reopening, competition roared in. Due to a scarcity, the feeds were expensive. For every Sh100 she made, Sh70 went to buying feeds.
And then the government’s removal of subsidies on power saw bills shooting by over 30 per cent, further frustrating her business. Determined opposition by influential figures, and people ignorant to farmers’ plights and needs, which continued to hurt the industry’s chances of benefiting from biotechnology, quickly dimmed hopes of the business’ survival amid an increasing shortage of feeds.
Jennifer used to get her soymeal from Uganda for cheap; at the start it was as low as KSh7, but it quickly went up to Sh50. She received tens of tonnes of soya, and was enjoying economies of scale in her early days.
But when incessant shortages hit and genetically modified feed ingredients could not be accessed, there was not much hope left.
“There was a problem because less than 5 per cent of all soya grown in the world was not genetically modified, and that was only what could be imported into Kenya,” she says.
The Russia-Ukraine war also hit exports to Kenya hard, with Kyiv responsible for a considerable amount of shipments of maize to Kenya. A drought in the south of Africa exacerbated the problem as the supply of soybean from Malawi and Zambia also reduced drastically.
“You see, Kenya has little soya and the production is in a very, very small scale. The cost of growing soybean is high; if you do not have the herbicide tolerant one you encounter a real problem growing it because it needs a lot of spraying.”
Bugged down by these challenges, Jennifer closed down the pig farm. Since, she has experimented on a number of projects she had not initially considered: she kept about 300 chickens (which she soon slaughtered, the last of which she still stores away in her fridge), and then she planted sandalwood, avocado, pomegranate, pigeon peas and apple trees.
It has almost been a way to ease herself back to the farm, which she avoided for a whole year after closing her processing plant. “It hurt, that closure affected me. I have not been able to invest over time,” she says.
On the farm, which has a big reservoir dug to support her agroforestry venture, she now plans to also plant exotic vegetables to supply hotels and lodges in the neighbourhood. In this reservoir, she keeps fish.
Five workers are now employed in the farm.
Jennifer, who touched lofty heights with her pig farming before plummeting post Covid-19, says that business people should learn to grow their ventures organically and know when to stop.
“Very big is not always very good. One should learn to identify their peak, and when to maybe level off and start another venture. When businesses overgrow, it gets hard to track progress, and the metrics become foggy,” she advises.
She says that farmers, bombarded with information from parties that purport to want the best for them, must be open to learning, as trainers will only teach them what is of benefit to the latter.
At the same time, farmers must learn to be diligent and to prioritize use of materials that are not harmful to their crops, their animals, or the environment.
“We have gotten used to buying cheap counterfeits, some of them sneaked in and long banned, and while we know the dangers, we ignore them. Once sprayed, the residues remain in the soil, or dissolve in the water, and hurts the environment, alongside the users and non-users of the herbicides,” she observes.
She is upbeat that use of modern technology, such as biotechnology, could be useful for food security, but is skeptical that the cost of genetically modified seeds, which, despite an ability to withstand several environmental challenges, need consistent repurchasing for replanting due to quick loss of vigour, could compromise sustainability for struggling farmer communities.
Jennifer notes that delays in progress of importation and commercialization of key genetically modified crops in Kenya, have led to many farmers closing down promising business ventures.
An astute businessperson, and farmer, Jennifer says that the surest way of farmers making a livelihood from farming is through looking at farming as a business.
“If you look at agriculture as a business, you will have a roadmap and therefore organize your activities. You will know why you are farming this or that, what needs to be done and what should be avoided, where your market is, and the expertise needed to optimize the business.”
Jennifer misses pig farming, and her eyes radiate whenever it is mentioned. With funding that would enable a restart, she would dive back in without second thought.